We’ve all just missed the majority of laps 3-5 of the race due to FOM’s insistence of showing six to seven replays of the start right at the moment that DRS is activated and the early pitstops and strategies are playing out.

It’s becoming epidemic now. It needs to stop. Save the replays for AFTER the race. Am I the only one who feels like this?

Although I’m used to it and expected it, I too was surprised by the replays’ length today. A first shot is fine to be shown on lap 3 when the cars have a small gap between them, but not an on board of every driver and a replay from every possible angle! There surely will be time later in the race to do so, if needed at all.

It was mainly for the Indian viewers who have very less understanding of the sport, imo. Lol.

And speaking of epidemic, there was a major WORLD WAR Z moment when Webber retired and parked it along the picnic stand. Hahah.
So many people came swarming in it reminded me of the wall breaching scene from the movie. But excellent turnout, well done India.

Yes, we saw Vettel’s last lap and a half and nobody else – when all the fun with the champion was after the chequered flag – and the current tyre rules are designed to close up the last few laps. And how many minutes did they waste showing the back of people’s heads on the pit wall?

What’s wrong with a inset picture showing the live action? At least you know you’re not missing anything. They used them more back in the 80s and 90s, and TVs are way bigger and clearer now…

Or have a dedicated highlights channel with looped start replays for viewers who want to watch that.

I’ve thought this for years to be honest but F1 isn’t the sport of common sense. It’s daft to do them so near the start anyway when that’s generally when the most action happens although I really don’t care about missing DRS *overtakes*…

They always miss a lot of overtakes so that is nothing new. There have been more start replays, generally because so much action happens there and sometimes less in the actual race. I agree that they should split the screen or use an inset more often, maybe they are thinking of all those tablet viewers for whom the screen is quite small anyway (there is still a quad mix on Sky iPad, which is quite good – TV, 2 on-boards and telemetry split timing). Definitely only show them when there is no on track action. Only rarely is this all race long.

@aish – Lol. The wall breach scene was hilarious! I’ll bet Abu Dhabi wanted the championship climax, but this definitely had a feel of taking it to the people which was quite nice to see. The one thing India always has a lot of is people!

Normally, I don’t mind a lot. Usually, when the replays are shown, everyone has settled into a rhythm and there are no pit stops yet. This time it was different as there were drivers pitting in lap 1 and 2, and it would have been great to show at least some of the progress of Grosjean and Vettel through the field.

I think last night there was a lot of different things happening in the start, and they showed 2 or 3 angles of the each of the incidents, which is why it seemed so long. However, I think they were caught off guard with the people stopping on lap 1 and 2. Having said that, I don’t think there is a right time to show them, but I would be annoyed if they didn’t show the replay, because lets face it, the start is probably one of the crucial components of any race. I know I get very narky if I miss the start of a race, just ask Mrs Dragoll :P

@kingshark They are probably saving those replays for the season review DVD :P

But seriously, why in the world FOM doesn’t use picture in picture? PiP is not some sort of arcane witchcraft these days, and honestly they could leave most pitstop to a small window while stuff happens on track, I don’t think anybody would care much. Maybe @gt-racer could explain why?